Page Layout Programs

[D-50]

I am looking to put together a Photography book and need a program to layout my pictures, text, and graphics with. Does anyone know of any free downloadable programs? if not any good ones that I can buy? I am not looking for tempplates I just want a program where I can design the pages of my book. If there are any other ways to do this through Phooshop CS or any other imaging programs I would like to know those as well... Thank you

 

[JohnMF]

QuarkXpress is the industry standard for this sort of thing, but i'm afraid it isnt free. I dont know of any free ones

 

[Digital Matt]

QuarkXpress is the industry standard for this sort of thing, but i'm afraid it isnt free. I dont know of any free ones

I believe Adobe InDesign has surpassed Quark as industry for the most part, but again it's not free. You can do it with Photoshop, but it won't be quite as easy dealing with the many layers you'll encounter. My advice for photoshop would be to set up a template for how you want your pages to look, and once you are happy with your design flattena copy of it to use in the assembling of your pages. You'll reduce the number of layers you have going then, and make it easier to manage.

 

[Arch]

Yep, Adobe InDesign is what i use if im doing anything with text and pics (although sometimes i cant help breakin out quark again.... i got so use to the shortcuts!)..... but InDesign has some very useful features.
If illustrator available to you, i would use that after indesign and quark... its much easier to move things around and set templates etc....
if not you may have to use ps... but like matt says you will have multiple layers to contend with.... my advice would be keep it a simple as possible with ps.... the clean contemporary style may suit you anyway.... so if you can, just have an image and a few words of text for each page. If you need to write a long into... i would recommend firstly typing it out in a word program and then copy it to a ps page when its done.... that way you get the benefit of the spelling/grammer checks etc. Good luck!

 

[D-50]

I just tried to use photoshop but I could not figure out ow do use it to create a page with multiple photos and some text. I set a new document to 11" wide by 8/5" tall and tried to paste photos into new layers but the photos would not paste correctly and I coule not figure out how to arrange the page.

 

[morydd]

You might check out OpenOffice.org
It's free software (more like MS Office than an acutal layout program, but it does allow you to export as PDF) and available on any platform.

 

[Arch]

I just tried to use photoshop but I could not figure out ow do use it to create a page with multiple photos and some text. I set a new document to 11" wide by 8/5" tall and tried to paste photos into new layers but the photos would not paste correctly and I coule not figure out how to arrange the page.

You have to open the new page with a white bg...... then just open your image into ps and use the move cursor to drop it onto the layout page. Then its on its own layer, so you can resize it or whatever, and put it where you want (using rulers is best to line everything up)...... then open your next image and drop that on the page, then making sure your new image layer is selected, resize or move to where you want that one to be....... As long as you rember to select the right layer when moving or adjusting, you shouldn't have many problems.

One option you may consider, providing you dont have much text to add, is to go for an online book printing service. These are good for two reasons.... firstly with most printing companies, you get online templates for each page. so its real easy to upload your pics into the pages.... and second, it doesn't cost a bomb to get a small number printed.
If your thinking of going to a proper bookmakers expect to pay quite a bit.... if your thinking of comercial printers, that also do posters, business cards etc.. most wont take a small order, and others will but they'll charge you alot because its not worth them setting up the machines for just a few copies.
I'v used one before in England tho.... but you should find some US equivalents.

 

[D-50]

How big should I make my new background... I was planning on the book being 8x10 or possibly 11X14 so should I make the new background to those dimensions?

 

[Arch]

it depends where/how your gonna get it printed...... if it goes to a commercial printer you'll need to add bleed beforehand...... its best to check first with whatever printer you going for.

 

[Alpha]

You're probably having issues pasting into the new document because of resolution issues. Taking a 600dpi photo and pasting it into a 300dpi canvas will basically double the size of your photo. Make sure that the resolutions are uniform across the board before you start inserting and arranging things.